{"product_id":"the-know-nothing-campaign-against-higher-learning-paperback-2","title":"The Know-Nothing Campaign Against Higher Learning - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJames Chandler\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIrony and satire in the contemporary American moment.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe second Trump administration has committed itself to upending the knowledge systems and deliberative institutions that have been essential to modern democracy, with the American university--site of scientific research and liberal education--a primary target. In \u003ci\u003eThe Know-Nothing Campaign Against Higher Learning\u003c\/i\u003e, literary and film critic James Chandler spotlights an American tradition of such hostility to intellectual life, especially the nativist movement of the 1850s that persecuted Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany. Ironically, Steve Bannon, the self-proclaimed \"Know-Nothing vulgarian\" who long ago recruited candidate Trump to his anti-intellectual crusade, is himself the great-grandson of an Irish immigrant who would have faced Know-Nothing backlash in that era.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSuch dark ironies define our moment, Chandler argues, and they call out not only for intellectual critique but also for satire. Yet in the midst of the MAGA campaign's calamitous effects on American public discourse, even satire must confront the \"kayfabe\" practices imported by Trump from professional wrestling, which mix illusion and reality to turn political life into a \"spectacle without thought.\" Drawing widely on cultural critics from Jonathan Swift and Alexis de Tocqueville to Roland Barthes, Chandler's pamphlet offers an elegant and bracing account of the MAGA campaign against higher learning and its transformative effects on criticism and democracy itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames Chandler \u003c\/b\u003eis the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of English and Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. His publications include \u003ci\u003eEngland in 1819: The Politics of Literary Culture and the Case of Romantic Historicism\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAn Archaeology of Sympathy: The Sentimental Mode in Literature and Cinema\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eDoing Criticism: Across Literary and Screen Arts\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Irish Academy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 166\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.5 x 6.9 x 4.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 19, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53908993212723,"sku":"9781958846186","price":20.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/tYeI4k8S-09781958846186_8f20377b-5e70-4450-b3b6-32d0daf0472d.webp?v=1787828989","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/the-know-nothing-campaign-against-higher-learning-paperback-2","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}